414 Short Inspirational Quotes to Motivate You Right Now (2024)

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It’s 1 PM. You’re still tired from eating a too-big lunch (again), and your third coffee hasn’t kicked in yet. What can you do to get through the day? How can you muster your courage, focus your attention, and summon some extra energy to keep doing a few more hours of work that matters? The answer: Short inspirational quotes — and in this organized list, you’ll find exactly the one you need.

Hi, my name is Nik! I’m the founder of Four Minute Books. In 2016, I published 365 book summaries. That personal challenge is how this site began. Since then, our library has grown to over 1,200 titles, and, needless to say, my tiny team and I have come across an inspiring line or two along the way.

At Four Minute Books, everything we do follows a system. That’s why this list is different. Instead of a loose collection of the same quotes from the same people, quickly cobbled together and many of them misattributed, we went above and beyond to get you the very best, short inspiring quotes — a whopping 414 of them, to be exact — following a strict set of rules and selection criteria.

Whether you want to find a new perspective on a challenging problem, stop procrastinating and do the important work that lies in front of you, or light your inner spark to start something new and magical, we’ll help you find the right words, right now.


How To Use This List

We’ll kick off this list with the most popular inspirational quotes of all time based on real reader votes. Then, we’ll move through quotes about different themes, like motivation, success, and relationships. Next, I’ll share some personal favorites of mine from people I know (real quotes!), my own writing (8 years and counting), and hard-hitters that changed my perspective forever. After that, we’ll look at short quotes from some extremely inspiring people and professional one-line wisdom-dispensers, like Seth Godin and Brené Brown. We’ll also discover some magical lines from Harry Potter and other famous fantasy worlds, closing out with wisdom from “untouchable” heroes like Yoda, Bruce Lee, and the ancient Stoics.

 

Of course, you can also share to your heart’s content: If you highlight any quote, sharing options will appear, and the second-to-last section of this list comes packed with 100 pre-formatted images for various social media platforms. For more details about the methodology behind this list, go to the last section of this list.

Finally, this is list is super easy to navigate, thanks to the table of contents above. Simply click on any section, and jump right to the kind of wisdom you need right now.

We tried our best to make this the last list of short inspiring quotes you’ll ever need. Bookmark it, skim it, and browse it until you find the line that helps you move forward. And if you have an idea on how we can make it better, don’t hesitate to tell us on Twitter.

Here are 414 absolutely epic, short motivational quotes!


The 34 Most Popular Short Inspirational Quotes of All Time

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According to Goodreads’ nearly 100 million members, these are the 34 most popular quotes that fit our criteria. The top quote has 166,000+ votes, and it goes down from there. Moving along the list, I decided to include all quotes down to 40,000 votes.

Here go the 34 most popular short but inspiring quotes of all time:

1. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Anonymous

2. “So many books, so little time.” ― Frank Zappa

3. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” ― Bernard M. Baruch

4. “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” ― Dr. Seuss

5. “You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.” — Joe E. Lewis

6. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

7. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” ― Robert Frost

8. “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” ― J.K. Rowling

9. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” ― Anonymous

10. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ― Anonymous

11. “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” ― Elbert Hubbard

12. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ― Oscar Wilde

13. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” ― Percy Colson

14. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

15. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

16. “We accept the love we think we deserve.” ― Stephen Chbosky

17. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

18. “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” ― Narcotics Anonymous

19. “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” ― Andre Gide

20. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” ― H. Jackson Brown Jr

21. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” ― J.K. Rowling

22. “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” ― Marilyn Monroe

23. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ― Albert Einstein

24. “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” ― J.K. Rowling

25. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” ― Oscar Wilde

26. “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman

27. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” ― William Shakespeare

28. “It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.” ― Maurice Switzer

29. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” ― Mark Twain

30. “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” ― Allen Saunders

31. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” ― Bill Keane

32. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ― Thomas A. Edison

33. “A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

34. “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” ― Mark Twain


32 Inspiring Quotes for Motivation

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If you’re looking for short quotes specifically for motivation — to run your errands, to start or finish an important project, to go work out at the gym — try the following 32 hard-hitters we’ve compiled from around the web:

1. “Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” ― Roy T. Bennett

2. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” ― Zig Ziglar

3. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl

4. “Success is never final; failure is never fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Anonymous

5. “He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right.” — Confucius

6. “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” ― Arthur C. Clarke

7. “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life — and that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan

8. “The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” — Theodore Roosevelt

9. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” — Adelaide Anne Procter

10. “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” — Jim Rohn

11. “Opportunity is often missed because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Anonymous

12. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker

13. “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” — Les Brown

14. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.” — Jessie Potter

15. “It is your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny.” — Tony Robbins

16. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” — Michael Jordan 

17. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” ― Oprah Winfrey

18. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” ― Marianne Williamson

19. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy

20. “What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.” ― Maya Angelou

21. “Death is being alive and not knowing it.” — Anonymous

22. “Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.” ― Zig Ziglar

23. “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” — Anonymous

24. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” — Amelia Earhart

25. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky

26. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” — George Addair

27. “There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized.” — Conan O’Brien

28. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.” ― J.K. Rowling

29. “You drown not by falling into the river, but by staying submerged in it.” — Paulo Coelho

30. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” ― Arnold Schwarzenegger

31. “You’re already in pain. You’re already hurt. Use it! Do something with it! Get a reward from it. Allow your pain to push you to greatness.” — Eric Thomas

32. “There’s no excuse to not be the hardest worker in the room, whatever it may be, your job, the gym, your relationship. Your name’s attached to it, and that has to mean more than anything.” — Greg Plitt


32 Inspiring Quotes About Success

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Want some short, punchy quotes to motivate you to go after what you truly want out of life? Here are 32 brief but powerful quotes about persistence and finding success:

1. “I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.” ― Herbert Bayard Swope

2. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” ― Herman Melville

3. “Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.” ― Roy T. Bennett

4. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” ― Truman Capote

5. “Have no fear of perfection — you’ll never reach it.” ― Salvador Dali

6. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” — Napoleon Hill

7. “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” — Anonymous

8. “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” — Coco Chanel

9. “What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” — Bob Dylan

10. “There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.” — Zig Ziglar

11. “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” — Roger Staubach

12. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ― Oliver Goldsmith

13. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” — Stephen R. Covey

14. “Some of the biggest failures I ever had were successes. A man has to try in order to grow, and try again. The point is that it’s the trying that does it, and not necessarily achieving what he is attempting to do.” — Pearl Bailey

15. “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” — Albert Einstein

16. “You may get to the very top of the ladder and then find it has not been leaning against the right wall.” — Allen Raine

17. “Success is failure turned inside out.” — Edgar A. Guest

18. “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.” — Florence Nightingale

19. “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” — Anonymous

20. “He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.” — Bessie A. Stanley

21. “Work hard in silence and let success make the noise.” — Anonymous

22. “Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work.” — Chuck Close

23. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” — Dale Carnegie

24. “Most men and women die intellectually at 25, but are not buried until 60.” — G. E. Marchand

25. “People of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” — Elinor Smith

26. “A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against not with the wind.” — John Neal

27. “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” — Steve Jobs

28. “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” — Sun Tzu

29. “If you hang out with chickens, you’re going to cluck, and if you hang out with eagles, you’re going to fly.” ― Steve Maraboli

30. “80 percent of success is showing up.” — Woody Allen

31. “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” — Francis Chan

32. “Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.” ― Robert T. Kiyosaki


32 Inspiring Quotes About Relationships

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Did you just go through a breakup? Have you recently fallen in love? Are you going through a rough patch with a friend or family member? Perhaps, a tiny dose of new perspective will lead to a breakthrough.

Here are 32 short inspiring quotes about human relationships:

1. “They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.” — Carl W. Buehner

2. “Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.” ― J.K. Rowling

3. “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” — Carl Jung

4. “For the two of us, home isn’t a place. It is a person. And we are finally home.” ― Stephanie Perkins

5. “The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.” ― Ernest Hemingway

6. “When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” — Donald Miller

7. “There is greatness in doing something you hate for the sake of someone you love.” ― Shmuley Boteach

8. “Friendship isn’t a big thing—it’s a million little things.” — Paulo Coelho

9. “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

10. “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” ― Jane Austen

11. “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” ― Helen Keller

12. “Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.” ― Sarah Dessen

13. “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” ― C.S. Lewis

14. “You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” ― A.A. Milne

15. “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” ― Elie Wiesel

16. “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” — Dean Koontz

17. “No one on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time on my business.’” — Arnold Zack

18. “I destroy my enemies by making them my friends.” — Anonymous

19. “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

20. “Love is like the wind — you can’t see it but you can feel it.” ― Nicholas Sparks

21. “You don’t love someone because they’re perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.” ― Jodi Picoult

22. “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson

23. “One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” ― Paulo Coelho

24. “Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.” — Booker T. Washington

25. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Steve Jobs

26. “A wish for friendship may arise quickly, but friendship does not.” — Aristotle

27. “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

28. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” ― Leo Tolstoy

29. “When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching — they are your family.” ― Jim Butcher

30. “I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.” ― Walt Whitman

31. “A real friend walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” — Anonymous

32. “When we attempt to exercise power or control over someone else, we cannot avoid giving that person the very same power or control over us.” ― Alan Watts


16 Short Inspiring Quotes From the People in My Life

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Okay, inspiring quotes from famous people are great, but what about the people we know? If we look and listen, there’s plenty of inspiration to be found right inside our homes, offices, and when spending time with friends and loved ones.

To that end, here are 16 short quotes from the people in my life that continue to inspire me throughout the years. For more, see here.

1. “What you don’t have in your head, you gotta have in your legs.” — My grandma, about forgetting one’s keys

2. “Nonsense.” — My uncle, about everything that wasn’t one of his priorities

3. “My boss used to say: ‘I’ve been producing ‘navy blue’ for 40 years!’ That’s when I knew I needed to get out of there.” — My dad about his first job at a chemical company making dyes

4. “If you can go to bed late, you can also get up early.” — My grandma, on laziness

5. “Tomorrow’s another day.” — My mom, whenever I was sick, down, broken, or defeated

6. “All you have to do to get the career you want is to figure out the building blocks it requires, then chain them together.” — My other uncle, senior partner at a big consulting firm

7. “Everyone should know how to set up and run a blog.” — My statistics professor in the US, right before making the entire class do just that.

8. “We learn for life, not for school.” — A friend from college, trying to alleviate the pain of 12-hour study sessions

9. “The days when we least want to exercise are the days we need it the most.” — A former roommate

10. “Everything happens for a reason.” — An ex-girlfriend

11. “Whatever money can solve, let it.” — My girlfriend

12. “I like studying in big libraries. I need room to think.” — Another roommate

13. “Take all the time you need.” — My girlfriend, whenever she has to wait for me

14. “I would not say a word — so I don’t accidentally change anything.” — Bill Gates, about what he’d tell his 20-year-old self on the phone (while giving a talk at my college)

15. “Sympathy is free, envy must be earned.” — My mom, whenever someone attacks me because I’m different in any way, shape, or form

16. “There were always moments when one or the other could have left, but what better thing might follow?” — My grandma, about how she managed to stay married for almost 60 years


32 Short Inspiring Quotes That Made a Big Impact on Me

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Some lines hit us harder than others, and it’s often a matter of “right place, right time.” Chances are, a movie you watch right after a tragic breakup will leave a more lasting impression than one you casually run in the background on a Tuesday while boiling your pasta. That’s why our personal selection of quotes that affected us in a big way is highly subjective — but if we share our collections, perhaps for someone else, an idea or two will also come in the right place and at the right time.

Here are 32 short, deep quotes from books I’ve read, movies I’ve watched, TED talks I’ve listened to, and more:

1. “All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.” — J.R.R. Tolkien

2. “Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.” — Alfred to Batman

3. “You should think of the word depressed as ‘deep rest.’ Deep. Rest. Your body needs to be depressed. It needs deep rest from the character that you’ve been trying to play.” — Jim Carrey

4. “Sometimes things have to fall apart to make way for better things.” — Ted Mosby

5. “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” — Paulo Coelho

6. “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” — Sir Ken Robinson

7. “Always the stairs, never the escalator.” — Casey Neistat

8. “Life is long if you know how to use it.” — Seneca

9. “Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once we grow up.” — Picasso

10. “If more people valued home above gold, this world would be a merrier place.” — Thorin Oakenshield

11. “Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong.” — Peter Drucker

12. “If you have to take a vacation, never come back.” — Joel Salatin

13. “The safest way to try and get what you want is to try and deserve what you want.” — Charlie Munger

14. “The moment you accept total responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you claim the power to change anything in your life.” — Hal Elrod

15. “The person who makes it is the person who keeps on going after everyone else has quit.” — Jerry Weintraub

16. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin

17. “You have to make yourself the only person who controls your dreams.” — James Altucher

18. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs

19. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” — Eldridge Cleaver

20. “One is greater than zero.” — Gary Vaynerchuk

21. “The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” — Steven Pressfield

22. “You must believe in yourself enough to be the person now that others will remember later.” — Greg Plitt

23. “No matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter who your audience is: 30 percent will love it, 30 percent will hate it, and 30 percent won’t care. Stick with the people who love you and don’t spend a single second on the rest. Life will be better that way.” — James Altucher

24. “Everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you.” — Steve Jobs

25. “They will race behind you. They will stumble. They will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun.” — Jor-El (Superman’s Dad)

26. “Death is what gives life meaning.” — The Ancient One (Dr. Strange)

27. “Being an entrepreneur is mostly about trusting in your ability to figure it out.” — James Clear

28. “Don’t be what they made you.” — Wolverine

29. “Your move, chief.” — Robin Williams

30. “Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.” — Walt Whitman

31. “Whatever people say, there is right, there is wrong. There is nothing in between.” — Hercule Poirot

32. “Anger is a hot coal you’re holding, waiting to throw it at somebody.” — Zen proverb


28 Short Inspiring Quotes From My Own Writing

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You might not know this, but, next to running Four Minute Books, I’m a writer. I’ve been writing almost daily for over eight years, and since 2022, I also publish a free daily blog. In 2018, I compiled some of the best life lessons I’ve learned thanks to writing.

If you want to see them all, you can ready my post “Everything I Know Is True,” but here are the most inspiring ones:

1. “The only person you’ll spend the rest of your life with is you.” — Niklas Göke

2. “If you run out of kind words for yourself, stop talking.” — Niklas Göke

3. “The truth about ourselves is what we choose to believe.” — Niklas Göke

4. “Freedom is always internal.” — Niklas Göke

5. “Having a choice matters more than whatever choice you make.” — Niklas Göke

6. “We should believe more in what we create and less in what we emulate.” — Niklas Göke

7. “We can’t choose what we’re raised to value, but we can choose to change.” — Niklas Göke

8. “What we learn alone is what we carry into our interactions with others.” — Niklas Göke

9. “Comparison is not just the death of joy, it is also the birth of misery.” — Niklas Göke

10. “It’s better to be curious than judgmental, and impossible to be both at once.” — Niklas Göke

11. “Study the failures of those around you, not the wins of those far away.” — Niklas Göke

12. “Changing your perspective is hard, but let it always be your first try.” — Niklas Göke

13. “Aging won’t free you from stupidity. Only learning will.” — Niklas Göke

14. “A mistake is only as valuable as the time you spend learning from it.” — Niklas Göke

15. “Every lesson in life comes at the expense of unlearning another.” — Niklas Göke

16. “The more you listen, the smarter you get. Listening leads to learning.
The smarter you get, the more you listen. Learning leads to humility.” — Niklas Göke

17. “You don’t need an identity to have a life.” — Niklas Göke

18. “The only way to stay true to who you are is to change every day.” — Niklas Göke

19. “Reality consists of subjects and verbs. We supply all the adjectives.” — Niklas Göke

20. “The only place where we can truly live is the present. It all happens here.” — Niklas Göke

21. “Peace of mind relies on having faith in present-you.” — Niklas Göke

22. “When the outside world is loud, be quiet inside.” — Niklas Göke

23. “Your work should reflect who you are, not what you want your life to be.” — Niklas Göke

24. “The easiest way to attract what you desire is to deserve what you want.” — Niklas Göke

25. “Wanting what makes you happy requires wanting the right things.” — Niklas Göke

26. “Half of happiness is learning to love everything you don’t have.” — Niklas Göke

27. “If you travel because you’re unhappy, you’ll never reach your destination.” — Niklas Göke

28. “What you do in your one life will be everything you ever do.” — Niklas Göke


24 Short Inspiring Quotes About Leaving Your Comfort Zone

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My very first article was about leaving your comfort zone. Naturally, I have a soft spot for that topic. When I couldn’t find a list of quotes specifically mentioning “the comfort zone” as a concept, I made one. Here are some of the best lines I found. May they push you to challenge yourself and try something new:

1. “A comfort zone is a beautiful place – but nothing ever grows there.” — Anonymous

2. “Comfort is the enemy of achievement.” — Farrah Gray

3. “Great things never came from comfort zones.” — Anonymous

4. “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” — Neale Donald Walsh

5. “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what a ship is built for.” — John Augustus Shedd

6. “Outside of the comfort zone is where the magic happens.” — Anonymous

7. “A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.” — Lao-Tzu

8. “As you move outside of your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal.” — Robin S. Sharma

9. “When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.” — Eckhart Tolle

10. “Great people do things before they’re ready.” — Amy Poehler

11. “Comfort zones are plush lined coffins. When you stay in your plush lined coffin, you die.” — Stan Dale

12. “Everything you desire is always just outside your comfort zone. If it wasn’t, you would already possess it, would you not?” — Chris Murray

13. “To the degree we’re not living our dreams, our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves.” — Peter McWilliams

14. “As long as you’re uncomfortable, it means you’re growing.” — Ashton Kutcher

15. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

16. “It’s good to feel stupid sometimes and do things that are out of your comfort zone.” — Mary-Louise Parker

17. “I have stepped outside my comfort zone enough to know that, yes, the world does fall apart, but not in the way that you fear.” — Tan Le

18. “It’s when you begin to think about going to your dream that your dream is always outside of your comfort zone. It’s always beyond what you’ve ever done.” — Bruce Wilkinson

19. “In the long run, our comfort zone becomes our uncomfortable zone.” — Charles F. Glassman

20. “When you go out of your comfort zone and it works, there’s nothing more satisfying.” — Kristen Wiig

21. “If your circle doesn’t challenge you to grow beyond your comfort zone, then you are definitely in the wrong circle.” — Edmond Mbiaka

22. “So when you feel this time approaching, and your comfort zone’s in view. Stop and think about what you’re feeling, and see if what you’re feeling is true.” — Julie Hebert

23. “To be outstanding – get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” — Alrik Koudenburg

24. “Find your uncomfortzone.” — Anonymous


28 Short Quotes From Naval Ravikant

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One of my favorite sources of wisdom is the investor, philosopher, and grade-A thinker Naval Ravikant. I’ve been following him for years, and I highly recommend a book of his ideas compiled by Eric Jorgenson, called The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. Here are 28 of his best quotes from Twitter, the book, and his interviews:

1. “Life is a single player game.” — Naval Ravikant

2. “If you’re not willing to do a wholesale, 24/7, 100% swap with who that person is, then there is no point in being jealous.” — Naval Ravikant

3. “My old definition was ‘freedom to’, freedom to do anything I want. Now I would say that the freedom I’m looking for is internal freedom. It’s ‘freedom from.’” — Naval Ravikant

4. “Happiness to me is mainly not suffering, not desiring, not thinking too much about the future or the past, really embracing the present moment and the reality of what is, the way it is.” — Naval Ravikant

5. “Wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions.” — Naval Ravikant

6. “It’s very hard to be successful in business if you’re trying to live a well-rounded life.”  — Naval Ravikant

7. “To win at a status game, you have to put somebody else down. Avoid status games. They make you into an angry, combative person.” — Naval Ravikant

8. “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” — Naval Ravikant

9. “A great goal in life would be to not have to be in a given place at a given time.” — Naval Ravikant

10. “Whenever you can in life, if you have the choice, optimize for independence rather than optimize for pay.” — Naval Ravikant

11. “The smartest and the most successful people I know started out as losers.” — Naval Ravikant

12. “All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.” — Naval Ravikant

13. “Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgement.” — Naval Ravikant

14. “Reading is faster than listening. Doing is faster than watching.” — Naval Ravikant

15. “Work as hard as you can. Even though who you work with and what you work on are more important than how hard you work.” — Naval Ravikant

16. “Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.” — Naval Ravikant

17. “Doctors won’t make you healthy. Nutritionists won’t make you slim. Teachers won’t make you smart. Gurus won’t make you calm. Mentors won’t make you rich. Trainers won’t make you fit. Ultimately, you have to take responsibility. Save yourself.” — Naval Ravikant

18. “The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.” — Naval Ravikant

19. “The quality of your mind is the quality of your life.” — Naval Ravikant

20. “The more neatly you fit into society, the less free you actually are.” — Naval Ravikant

21. “You’re spending time to save money when you should be spending money to save time.” — Naval Ravikant

22. “If you want to make the wrong decision, ask everyone.” — Naval Ravikant

23. “Read the books they want to ban.” — Naval Ravikant

24. “The secret to a happy relationship is two happy people.” — Naval Ravikant

25. “If you aren’t willing to be mocked, you’ll never be able to lead.” — Naval Ravikant

26. “People think they can’t change themselves, but they can. People think they can change others, but they can’t.” — Naval Ravikant

27. “Your success in life depends on your ability to make good decisions. Your happiness depends on your ability to not care about the outcomes.” — Naval Ravikant

28. “It takes time to develop your gut, but once it’s developed, don’t listen to anything else.” — Naval Ravikant


32 Short Quotes From Seth Godin

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Seth Godin is a legend in the world of marketing, but his talks, daily blog, and some 20+ bestsellers go way beyond brilliant branding and sales advice. He is one of few people I consider a true role model, from his ethics to his attitude to his thinking. My #1 book recommendation is The Dip. Here are some of his best lines:

1. “You have only two good choices: Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.” — Seth Godin

2. “The long way is the shortcut.” — Seth Godin

3. “In many mature markets, it takes 10,000 hours of preparation to win because most people give up after 5,000 hours. That’s the only magic thing about 10k… it’s a hard number to reach, so most people bail.” — Seth Godin

4. “You don’t win an Olympic gold medal with a few weeks of intensive training. […] Every great company, every great brand, and every great career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little.” — Seth Godin

5. “Writer’s block is a myth, a recent invention, a cultural malady. […] It doesn’t matter if anyone reads it, buys it, sponsors it or shares it. It matters that you show up.” — Seth Godin

6. “Everyone who can [read] this has more power than they think they do. The question is, what are you going to do with that power?” — Seth Godin

7. “Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.” — Seth Godin

8. “The secret to being wrong isn’t to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn’t fatal.” ― Seth Godin

9. “The job is not the work. The job is what you do when you are told what to do. Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it.” — Seth Godin

10. “All anxiety is is experiencing failure in advance.”  —  Seth Godin

11. “A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner.” ― Seth Godin

12. “Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment.” ― Seth Godin

13. “Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt.” ― Seth Godin

14. “You’re astonishing. How dare you waste it.” ― Seth Godin

15. “Just about everything you learned in school about life is wrong, but the wrongest thing might very well be this: Being well-rounded is the secret to success.” ― Seth Godin

16. “The Dip is the long stretch between beginner’s luck and real accomplishment.” ― Seth Godin

17. “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” ― Seth Godin

18. “The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.” ― Seth Godin

19. “Reject the tyranny of picked. Pick yourself.” ― Seth Godin

20. “Life is like skiing. The goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill. It’s to have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets.” — Seth Godin

21. “Go ahead, do something impossible.” — Seth Godin

22. “If failure is not an option, then neither is success.” — Seth Godin

23. “If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” — Seth Godin

24. “The reason they want you to fit in is that once you do, then they can ignore you.” — Seth Godin

25. “You can raise the bar or you can wait for others to raise it, but it’s getting raised regardless.” — Seth Godin

26. “The job isn’t to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.” — Seth Godin

27. “The key to success is to find a way to stand out – to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins.” — Seth Godin

28. “The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing.” — Seth Godin

29. “You have everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself.” — Seth Godin

30. “You don’t have to settle. It’s a choice you get to make every day.” — Seth Godin

31. “It’s clearly more fun to make the rules than to follow them.” — Seth Godin

32. “The moment you talk about work/life balance you already missed the balance. Work and life overlap.” — Seth Godin


16 Short Quotes From Ryan Holiday

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When it comes to philosophy and overall perspective on life, Ryan Holiday is my go-to guy. A former marketer turned writer, he singlehandedly brought about a resurgence of Stoicism, an ancient Greek philosophy that can help us live a good life. If you want to know more, check out our list of Stoic quotes, but here are some of my favorite lines from Ryan’s books:

1. “When intelligent people read, they ask themselves a simple question: What do I plan to do with this information?” — Ryan Holiday

2. “The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.” — Ryan Holiday

3. “Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.” — Ryan Holiday

4. “Control your perceptions. Direct your actions properly. Willingly accept what’s outside your control.” — Ryan Holiday

5. “People claim to want to do something that matters, yet they measure themselves against things that don’t, and track their progress not in years but in microseconds. They want to make something timeless, but they focus instead on immediate payoffs and instant gratification.” — Ryan Holiday

6. “By seeing each day and each situation as a kind of training exercise, the stakes suddenly become a lot lower. The way you interpret your own mistakes and the mistakes of others is suddenly a lot more generous.” — Ryan Holiday

7. “Stillness is what aims the archer’s arrow. It inspires new ideas. It sharpens perspective and illuminates connections.” — Ryan Holiday

8. “There is no better definition of a Stoic: to have but not want, to enjoy without needing.” — Ryan Holiday

9. “There is nothing worth doing that is not scary. There is no one who has achieved greatness without wrestling with their own doubts, anxieties, limitations, and demons.” — Ryan Holiday

10. “It doesn’t matter if you’re tired or well-rested. It doesn’t matter if it’s hard or easy. If you’re cold or warm. What counts, whether you’re a kid or a king or anything in between, is that you do the right thing.” — Ryan Holiday

11. “You don’t have to always be amazing. You do always have to show up. What matters is sticking around for the next at bat.” — Ryan Holiday

12. “Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.” ― Ryan Holiday

13. “There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.” ― Ryan Holiday

14. “We forget: In life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you or where you came from. It matters what you do with what happens and what you’ve been given.” ― Ryan Holiday

15. “Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.” — Ryan Holiday

16. “The path of least resistance is a terrible teacher.” — Ryan Holiday


16 Short Quotes From Brené Brown

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Brené Brown is the world’s #1 researcher on shame, vulnerability, and courage. Her books have sold millions of copies and encourage thousands of people each day to be their best selves. If you want to live more courageously, be a true team player, and allow yourself to be honest and real, Brené is one of the best sources for inspiration.

Here are 16 of my favorite quotes of hers. For more, go here.

1. “You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” — Brené Brown

2. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” — Brené Brown

3. “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” — Brené Brown

4. “Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” — Brené Brown

5. “If you want to make a difference, the next time you see someone being cruel to another human being, take it personally. Take it personally because it is personal!” — Brené Brown

6. “Compassion is not a virtue — it is a commitment. It’s not something we have or don’t have — it’s something we choose to practice.” — Brené Brown

7. “When we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.” — Brené Brown

8. “The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.” — Brené Brown

9. “Show up for people in pain and don’t look away.” — Brené Brown

10. “Avoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run, but it will never make you less afraid.” — Brené Brown

11. “What we know matters but who we are matters more.” — Brené Brown

12. “Numb the dark and you numb the light.” — Brené Brown

13. “Just because someone isn’t willing or able to love us, it doesn’t mean that we are unlovable.” — Brené Brown

14. “Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.” — Brené Brown

15. “Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.” — Brené Brown

16. “At the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of my life, I want to say I contributed more than I criticized.” — Brené Brown


24 Motivational Quotes From J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter

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We can find inspiration well beyond the realm of reality, and personally, little lights my inner fire so strongly as a good novel. While there are countless good fiction titles, Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling might be the most famous book series of the 21st century, and it is packed with heartwarming lines. Whether you’re a diehard Harry Potter fan like me or “merely a muggle,” I’m sure you’ll find at least some of the following quotes inspiring. Especially Dumbledore is a fountain of wisdom that keeps on giving.

Here are 24 short motivational quotes from Harry Potter, some of which have received nearly 100,000 likes on Goodreads:

1. “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” — J.K. Rowling

2. “We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” — J.K. Rowling

3. “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” ― J.K. Rowling

4. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” ― J.K. Rowling

5. “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” ― J.K. Rowling 

6. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” ― J.K. Rowling

7. “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” ― J.K. Rowling

8. “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.” ― J.K. Rowling

9. “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.” ― J.K. Rowling

10. “The truth — it is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.” ― J.K. Rowling

11. “Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.” ― J.K. Rowling

12. “We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.” ― J.K. Rowling

13. “Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.” ― J.K. Rowling

14. “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” ― J.K. Rowling

15. “You do care. You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.” — J.K. Rowling

16. “It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.” ― J.K. Rowling

17. “Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.” ― J.K. Rowling

18. “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.” ― J.K. Rowling

19. “People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.” ― J.K. Rowling

20. “Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.” ― J.K. Rowling

21. “Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” ― J.K. Rowling

22. “It is my belief… that the truth is generally preferable to lies.” ― J.K. Rowling

23. “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” ― J.K. Rowling

24. “Perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it.” ― J.K. Rowling


12 Motivational Quotes From Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games

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Part dystopian sci-fi fantasy, part dramatic romance, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is another excellent series of books (and accompanying movies) to get inspired by. It is markedly darker than Harry Potter but still full of hope and empowering ideas. When I first picked up these books, I could not put them down.

Here are 12 of my favorite lines from the series to help you keep going when the going gets tough:

1. “You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.” ― Suzanne Collins

2. “I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now and live in it forever.” ― Suzanne Collins

3. “I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.” ― Suzanne Collins

4. “It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.” ― Suzanne Collins

5. “Destroying things is much easier than making them.” ― Suzanne Collins

6. “What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses.” ― Suzanne Collins

7. “Some walks you have to take alone.” ― Suzanne Collins

8. “Kind people have a way of working their way inside me and rooting there.” ― Suzanne Collins

9. “At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it.” ― Suzanne Collins

10. “Here’s some advice: Stay alive.” ― Suzanne Collins

11. “While you live, the revolution lives.” ― Suzanne Collins

12. “Aim higher in case you fall short.” ― Suzanne Collins


20 Motivational Quotes From Ancient Stoic Philosophers

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Some of my biggest heroes have long passed away, and that includes the early Stoic philosophers people like Ryan Holiday now write about. It’s always good to get an up to date take on any topic, but if you truly want to understand something, you’ll also have to go back to its source. In the case of early proponents of Stoicism, like Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, many of their ideas are as powerful today as they were 2,000 years ago. For a primer on Stoicism, see here.

Here are 20 short but thought-provoking quotes from the first Stoics. You can find more here.

1. “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” — Seneca

2. “Men are disturbed not by things but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.” — Epictetus

3. “You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius

4. “You could not step twice into the same river.” — Heraclitus

5. “We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we speak.” — Zeno of Citium

6. “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” ― Marcus Aurelius

7. “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” ― Epicurus

8. “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” — Seneca

9. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” ― Marcus Aurelius

10. “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” ― Marcus Aurelius

11. “We are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it.” — Seneca

12. “Choose not to be harmed, and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed, and you haven’t been.” — Marcus Aurelius

13. “Life is long if you know how to use it.” — Seneca

14. “Receive without pride, let go without attachment.” — Marcus Aurelius

15. “Freedom isn’t secured by filling up on your heart’s desire but by removing your desire.” — Epictetus

16. “People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.” — Seneca

17. “Wherever a person can live, there one can also live well.” — Marcus Aurelius

18. “Fate guides the willing, but drags the unwilling.” — Cleanthes

19. “Let your desires be ruled by reason.” — Cicero

20. “I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.” — Cato the Younger


20 Motivational Quotes From Bruce Lee

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Another one of my heroes who unfortunately no longer walks among us is Bruce Lee. The legendary kung fu master and Hollywood actor is the most influential martial artist in history. What not many people know is that his impact goes well beyond his movies and combat instructions. Lee was a philosopher at heart, and he wrote down many of his thoughts in his private journals and notes. Thankfully, a large portion of them has been published since his passing, and many of his ideas are well worth studying.

Here are 20 of the most inspiring, short but deep quotes from Bruce Lee. For more, see our full list here.

1. “Empty your mind. Be formless. Shapeless. Like water.” — Bruce Lee

2. “You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Be water, my friend.” — Bruce Lee

3. “I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.” — Bruce Lee

4. “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” — Bruce Lee

5. “Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” — Bruce Lee

6. “Be happy, but never satisfied.” — Bruce Lee

7. “A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.” — Bruce Lee

8. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” — Bruce Lee

9. “A goal is not always meant to be reached. It often serves simply as something to aim at.” — Bruce Lee

10. “To be humble to superiors is duty; to equals is courtesy; to inferiors is nobleness; and to all, safety!” — Bruce Lee

11. “An intelligent mind is one which is constantly learning, never concluding.” — Bruce Lee

12. “The superior man lets himself be guided; he does not go ahead blindly, but learns from the situation what is demanded of him and then follows.” — Bruce Lee

13. “Most people can talk without listening. Very few can listen without talking.” — Bruce Lee

14. “We have more faith in what we imitate than in what we originate.” — Bruce Lee

15. “To accept defeat — to learn to die — is to be liberated from it.” — Bruce Lee

16. “A fat belly cannot believe that such a thing as hunger exists.” — Bruce Lee

17. “You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open.” — Bruce Lee

18. “If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” — Bruce Lee

19. “It is the life of perfection which seems to be incomplete, and of fullness which seems to be empty.” — Bruce Lee

20. “Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.” — Bruce Lee


16 Motivational Quotes From Yoda

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Where some of idols were people I never had the chance to meet, others are folks who never existed at all. As with a good book or movie, that does not make them any less inspiring. For me, one of those people is Yoda, the famous Jedi master from Star Wars. He talks in a funny way, but his little quips of wisdom are hard to debate and even harder to ignore.

Here are master Yoda’s 16 best brief but refreshing lines. For more, see here.

1. “Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.” — Yoda

2. “Patience you must have, my young Padawan.” — Yoda

3. “Great warrior. Hmm. Wars not make one great.” — Yoda

4. “You must unlearn what you have learned.” — Yoda

5. “The greatest teacher, failure is.” — Yoda

6. “Death is a natural part of life.” — Yoda

7. “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” — Yoda

8. “Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view.” — Yoda

9. “If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are, a different game you should play.” — Yoda

10. “Named must your fear be, before banish it you can.” — Yoda

11. “Smaller in number are we, but larger in mind.” — Yoda

12. “Your path you must decide.” — Yoda

13. “To be Jedi is to face the truth, and choose. Give off light, or darkness, Padawan. Be a candle, or the night.” — Yoda

14. “Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.” — Yoda

15. “Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?” — Yoda

16. “A challenge lifelong it is, not to bend fear into anger.” — Yoda


100 Short Inspirational Quotes for Sharing on Social Media

If you want to post any of the above quotes to social media, you can do so with our “highlight and share” feature. That said, we also made a whopping 100 custom images for you to easily tap and share. Some are optimized for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, others follow Instagram’s classic square format or Pinterest’s more vertical layout.

We even tried to pick appropriate background images that fit with the theme of each quote or show the person who said it. Feel free to scroll through, save, screenshot, use them as phone wallpapers, and share as many as you like. Happy sharing!

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The 414 Best Short Inspirational Quotes of All Time #91

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Methodology & Attribution

I’m not a hardcore academic, but I did get a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Management & Technology. As such, I care about proper sources, organized footnotes, and well-structured information. Therefore, our list of short motivational quotes follows a strict set of rules:

  1. Each quote must be short (duh!). No more than 2-3 lines or sentences. Walls of text are forbidden. We want powerful, poignant insights!
  2. Each quote must be uplifting (duh again). No jokes or downers! Every quote must somehow encourage us to do better, lead by example, and be a force for good in the world. Even if it contains some tough love, it should ultimately make us want to improve rather than retreat.
  3. Each sub-section of quotes must have a focused, verifiable theme. When we tell you that “these are the most popular quotes,” there must be some metric to measure popularity by. When we say, “these are quotes about success,” each line must actually talk about achievement. And when we say, “these are the best lines from Brené Brown,” then you can rest assured we have tried our best to verify that each sentence actually came out of Brené Brown’s mouth or, well, pen. You’ll find more detail on each section’s theme at the top of that section.

Finally, since I am a writer and this website is all about books, you won’t be surprised to find that many of the quotes on this list are from non-fiction books, writers, and some of history’s greatest novels.

You will also notice that some of the quotes you know and love are attributed to other people than the ones you are used to. That’s because I went out and tried to verify their sources, and, surprise surprise, the internet is full of misinformation. Thankfully, websites like Wikiquote and Quote Investigator help clear up a great deal of it, and I’ve turned to them countless times while researching this list.

As a good rule of thumb, some especially popular individuals who constantly get quotes ascribed to them that they never said are: Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, and Maya Angelou. Whenever you see a quote that mentions them, especially one that doesn’t seem to fit into the language of their time, I encourage you to be skeptical and do your own research.


Conclusion

Phew! Almost exactly 10,000 words later (9,942, so close!), our list of short inspirational quotes is at its end. What are your thoughts? Did you find the kind of encouragement you were looking for? What are we missing? We’d love to hear how we can improve this list and make it even better. Ping us on Twitter, and if you’ve found even one good line in this massive compendium, we’d greatly appreciate a share.

May your inspiration never run out, and if it does, you know where to find some 😉


Other Quote Lists

Looking for more quotes from interesting people and lines from great books? Here are all quote lists we’ve hand-selected for you so far:


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Last Updated on January 1, 2024